Membrane sculpting by curved DNA origami scaffolds

Event details

Membrane sculpting and transformation is essential for many cellular functions, thus being largely regulated by self-assembling and
self-organizing protein coats. Their functionality is often encoded by particular spatial structures. Prominent examples are BAR domain
proteins, the ?banana-like? shapes of which are thought to aid scaffolding and membrane tubulation. To elucidate whether 3D structure
can be uncoupled from other functional features of complex scaffolding proteins, we hereby develop curved DNA origami in various shapes
and stacking features, following the presumable design features of BAR proteins, and characterize their ability for membrane binding
and transformation. We show that dependent on curvature, membrane affinity and surface density, DNA origami coats can indeed reproduce
the activity of membrane-sculpting proteins such as BAR, suggesting exciting perspectives for using them in bottom-up approaches
towards minimal biomimetic cellular machineries.

The University of Edinburgh

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